Kaiser patient medical records compromised

Privacy

Medical records for about 15,500 Northern California Kaiser patients - about 9,000 of them in the Bay Area - were compromised after thieves stole an external drive from a Kaiser employee's car last month, Kaiser officials said Tuesday.

Kaiser officials said the electronic device contained patients' names, medical record numbers and possibly ages, genders, telephone numbers, addresses and general information related to their care and treatment.

No Social Security numbers or financial information was contained on the drive, and Kaiser officials said there's no evidence that the information has been used inappropriately. The device was not encrypted, but some of the information was password protected.

Kaiser has sent letters to the 15,500 members and the employee, who Kaiser would not identify, has been fired.

"The employee was authorized to access the information involved as part of her job - this was not a case involving inappropriate access to Kaiser Permanente's electronic medical records, which are extremely secure," said Kristin Chambers, vice president in charge of compliance and privacy for Kaiser Permanente's Northern California division. "However, the employee's use of the device was unauthorized and violated Kaiser Permanente's strict policies regarding data storage."

The theft occurred Dec. 1 at the employee's home in Sacramento, and the employee notified Kaiser about it Dec. 8.

The fired employee had the authority to access the records, but employees at several California hospitals have been caught snooping in patient records without authorization.

The state beefed up fines for privacy violations last year after a number of breaches involving celebrities were reported at UCLA Medical Center. In May, state regulators fined Kaiser's Bellflower hospital $250,000 for failing to prevent 23 employees from accessing the medical records of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman without authorization.

Chambers said Kaiser contacted state and federal regulatory agencies after the latest incident, along with the Sacramento Police Department.